Striping tape



Oct. 28, 1969 w. H. MESEROLE 3,475,259

STRIPING TAPE Filed Oct. 21, 1965 INVENTOR TOWNS/1'1. N0 5 MAST/Q01! ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,475,259 STRIPING TAPE William H. Meserole, 4325 50th Terrace 8., St. Petersburg, Fla. 33711 Filed Oct. 21, 1965, Ser. No. 500,017 Int. Cl. B32b 3/16 US. Cl. 161-36 1 Claim ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A composite pressure sensitive adhesive striping tape having a bottom ply composed of at least a pair of coplanar base strips with pressure sensitive adhesive under faces and disposed in side by side laterally spaced relation; the base strips being held in service relation by a top ply connector strip with a pressure sensitive adhesive under face of substantially less area than the combined under face adhesive areas of the base strips.

The present invention relates in general to the art of ornamentation and in particular to means and methods for obtaining precision in hand painting stripes on article surfaces.

Precision striping by hand without the aid of rigid straight edge guides or stencils is almost an impossibility for non-professional painters; and even with the help of such devices, painstaking care is required for striping simple flat surfaces that present no problems of irregularity or curvature.

When a surface to be striped is curved, corrugated, dimpled, or is otherwise non-planar, the use of rigid stencils and straight edge guides is impractical because they do not conform to the surface contour.

The present invention provides a simple, low cost, striping stencil in the form of flexible adhesive tape that is self-conforming or easily moldable to the surface contour of an area to which it is applied, and which is capable of directional variation during its application.

The invention also provides a flexible striping stencil tape of the character above stated in which a predetermined width of stripe line space is maintained with absolute accuracy during application of the tape, by means of a component that is readily separate from the tape subsequent to its attachment to a surface that is to be painted with a stripe in the space exposed when the separable component is removed.

The invention further provides a two-ply flexible adhesive striping tape wherein one ply is composed of a plurality of coplanar adhesive sections separated longitudinally of the tape by an intervening space defining the formative area of a stripe, and in which the other ply is a removable cover strip that overlies the sections, spanning the space therebetween and adhesively attached to the sections whereby they are connected and maintained in predetermined spaced relation pending removal of the cover strip.

The invention still further provides a tape as described in the immediately preceding paragraph and in which the holding strength of the adhesive attachment between the cover strip and the underlying ply sections is less than the potential adhesive holding strength of the sections with reference to the surface of an article to which the tape may be applied.

The invention additionally provides a novel method of paint striping article surfaces without the air of rigid stencils and straight edge guides.

Other and incidental objects of the invention will be apparent from the following description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view illustrating the tape of this invention as mounted on a dispensing roll.

3,475,259 Patented Oct. 28, 1969 FIG. 2 is a fragmentary perspective view of the tape.

FIG. 3 is an elevation illustrating a method of applying the tape in use.

The invention is particularly useful in the painting of stripes on boats, automobile bodies, furniture, etc., where the line of stripe must be straight and of uniform width throughout its length, and where the surface to be striped presents problems of curvature and irregularity. The following detailed description is illustrative of, but not restricted to, an embodiment of the invention and the manner in which it is used in painting stripes on boats.

As shown herein, the striping tape of my invention is a two-ply stencil, denoted generally as 10, composed of three conventional pressure adhesive masking tapes. They are flexible and preferably of equal length and width. Pressure adhesive mas-king tape is obtainable on the open market. It has a non-adhesive top face and a bottom attachment face coated or otherwise provided with a latent adhesive substance that is made actively adhesive by pressure applied on the top face when attaching the tape to a surface on which it is applied. It is detachable simply by pulling it off, and does not tear in removal. Two such tapes, 11 and 12, comprise the bottom ply and are disposed in coplanar, laterally spaced relation with their top faces underlying the third tape 13 in adhesive connection with its bottom attachment face. Tape 13 is the top ply of the assembly. It connects the bottom ply tapes and spans the space between them, providing a removable cover therefor. It is easily separable from the underlying tapes simply by pulling it off. The composite stencil tape 10 is prefabricated by disposing the bottom ply tapes 11 and 12 in predetermined laterally spaced relation and fixing them in that relation by means of the removable connecting cover tape 13.

The opposed inner side edges of the bottom ply tapes 11 and 12 define the striping area delineated by the stencil when the tape 13 is removed, and they determine the width and side edge contour of a stripe produced by painting a surface exposed when the cover tape is separated from the stencil after it is applied in service position. The tape 13 connects and partially covers the attachment tapes 11 and 12 and holds them securely fixed against relative lateral displacement so long as they adhere to the bottom face of the cover tape.

The prefabricated tape is wider than a stripe that is to be painted with its aid, and preferably is supplied as a roll for dispensing from a carrier spool 14. It is attached to a surface 15 on which a stripe is to be painted, here shown as the hull of a boat, simply by pressing it against the surface at a desired location, and is there anchored by the holding effect of the adhesive connection between the bottom attachment faces of the tapes and the surface to which the unitary composite tape assembly is applied. Because the composite tape is highly flexible and can repeatedly be pulled off and reattached to the surface on which it is applied without impairment it is easily shiftable after its initial attachment, thus enabling refining adjustments over various portions of its length. Its flexibility enables it to conform to surface curvature and allows it to be molded in conformance 'with non-planar surface conditions.

My invention also provides a method for obtaining mathematically exact placement of a stripe relative to a predetermined fixed point or line of reference on the article on which it is to be painted. In the example here shown, the line of reference is the gunwale 16. Adhesive tape strips 17 of predetermined equal length are connected between the gunwale and the adjacent one of the tapes 11 or 12, thus assuring that the stencil tape will be disposed at all points throughout its length at an exact predetermined distance from the line of reference.

When the composite tape 10 is properly located on and attached to a surface 15 on which a strip is to be painted, the connecting cover tape strip 13 is pulled longitudinally off the underlying base tape strips 11 and 12, thereby exposing the surface therebetween. During removal of the tape 13, the tapes 11 and 12 are not affected, and they remain in their fixed positions of attachment to the surface 15 by reason of the fact that their combined surfaceadherent bottom faces provide a total adhesion area that is greater than the adhesion area of the bottom face of the covert ape 13. The holding strength of the adhesive connection between the bottom ply tapes 11 and 12 and surface 15 is so much greater than the holding strength of the adhesive connection between the top ply cover tape 13 and the tapes 11 and 12 that the cover tape pulls off the bottom tapes wtihout disturbing their fixed attachment to the surface 15.

After the exposed surface area between the opposed inner edges of the masking tapes 11 and 12 has been painted these tapes, together with the locator strips 17 if used, may easily be removed from surface 15 simply by pulling them off.

It is apparent from the preceding detailed description that the invention in its broad aspects is a flexible adhesive tape composed of separate area-defining portions connected in spaced relation prior to application by means of an overlying cover that is removable from said portions after surface attachment of the tape; thereby exposing the surface-attached portions and converting them into a fixed stencil that is detachably secured on the surface to which it adheres, and which conforms to the physical character of the surface. The bottom ply tapes which constitute the area-defining portions of the stencil are not limited to two, and may include one or more tapes in spaced relation intermediate the tapes 11 and 12. Essential requirements are that the top ply tape covers and connects all bottom ply tapes, and that the total combined potential adhesive holding strength of the bottom attachment faces of the tapes be greater than the current effective holding strength of the adhesive connection between the top ply cover tape and the bottom ply tape.

It is to be understood that the herein disclosed embodirnent of my invention is illustrative of a practical example and that the invention is not restricted thereto. It may comprise any structure falling within the scope of the invention as claimed.

I claim:

1. A two-ply composite striping tape consisting of:

(a) a bottom ply constituted of a plurality of flexible base strips disposed side by side in coplanar relation with their opposed side edges spaced apart to define the width and side edge contour of a stripe;

(b) the base strips each having a pressure sensitive adhesive under face;

(0) a top ply consisting of a flexible connector strip overlying a portion of the upper face of each base strip and spanning the stripe space therebetween;

(d) the top ply strip having a pressure sensitive adhesive under face adhering to the upper faces of the base strips;

(e) the width of the top ply connector strip being substantially less than the overall width of the composite tape;

(f) and the combined adhesive under face areas of the base tapes being substantially greater than the total adhesive under face area of the top ply connector strip,

whereby the connector strip may be peeled away from the base strips without detaching them from a surface to which they may adhere in service.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS MORRIS SUSSMAN, Primary Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 

